Debate, the only place where you can find arguments on privacy and international treaties alongside speeches about girls sports, opioids, and Hamilton quotes. When the Davis Debate team competed at the University of Utah this weekend all of these topics and more were discussed and heard by the thousand people that attended the tournament, making it one of the most attended high school sports events in the state of Utah. This large number of people meant that the competition was tough and placing was even tougher, but some on the incredibly talented team brought home the awards that only few could say they have.

But lets start from the top, beginning on Friday afternoon things were looking up for the Davis competitors in the single person Lincoln Douglas debate(LD). With all competitors having a 2W-1L record or better by the end of the first day spirits were high and the chances of our competitors making it to the playoff rounds were even higher. Yet no debate tournament would be complete without an update on our duo Public Forum debate(PF). While things had not gone as well had many had hoped in this event, one of the three Varsity teams and two of the novice teams had records good enough to be able to make the playoff rounds if they could keep up the pace, but the first day was barely ending, and the second day would be a trial by fire for even some of the most experienced debaters.

The beginning of the second day saw the introduction of the speech teams of every school into the mix, and this is where the things really began to be complicated, hundreds of competitors attempted to out speak or outperform people they have never met before. Davis only brought a few competitors in speech events but what they lacked in raw numbers they made up for in just how good these few speakers were. After the two preliminary rounds, Bowen Libby had broken in novice impromptu, Wyatt Ko broke in Extemp, and Trevor Schwab had broken in both Extemp and Oratory, as well as going on to the finals round of Oratory.

As the sun set and the lights dimmed the award ceremony in the Union building began, and it would not be long before Davis claimed its awards. Kaylen Cox and Steven Clift both won awards in LD. Two of Davis’ three novice PF teams placed in the top four, Child and Brough gained awards in PF as well. Speechers gaining awards included, Bowen Libby, Wyatt Ko, and Trevor Schwab. The team overall took 5th place out of the 20+ schools that attended, a welcome beginning to a debate season that has Davis placed at 5th in state, and many of our debaters and speechers being placed within the top 50 competitors in all of Utah Speech and Debate. They say that we may learn from the past in order to predict the future, and if that’s the case then we can predict many more Davis Debate victories in the future.